Bnei Brak hospital chief: COVID violations by haredim are killing people

The director of the Maayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak, Prof. Mordechai Ravid, has blasted the ultra-Orthodox community over its approach to COVID-19 regulations, saying its lack of adherence to government rules is killing people. “They have been educated to take everything and give nothing for years,” Ravid alleged in a fierce interview with Kan Reshet Bet radio station Thursday morning. “There has not been until today an entire community that casts off the yoke in this manner and kills people,” the professor continued, in reference to the large parts of the ultra-Orthodox community which are not complying with social distancing or mask wearing. Several large hassidic communities in particular such as Belz and Viznitz, as well as other smaller groups have refused to abide by these regulations, while extremists groups in Mea Shearim and Beit Shemesh, as well as the radical Jerusalem Faction community have similarly rejected government health guidelines. The rabbinic leadership of the non-hassidic ultra-Orthodox community has been more insistent that people abide by government health regulations, but has refused to order the closure of synagogues, schools and yeshivas. According to Kan, some 12% of COVID-19 deaths in Israel have been from the ultra-Orthodox community, roughly in keeping with the community’s size of approximately 11 to 12 percent of the general Israeli population. But since the median age of the ultra-Orthodox community is extremely young due to its high birth rate – and the fact that COVID has far more serious effects on older age groups – mortality rates in the sector were expected to be far lower than 12%.
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